


Five More Ficlets for Jet and Spike

by TeaRoses



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-13
Updated: 2010-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some short ficlets written for the stagesoflove LiveJournal.  They are based on five emotions:  compassion, hope, surprise, envy, and regret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Compassion

Jet is smoking in the bar, just waiting for someone to point to the no smoking sign so he can get angry at someone besides himself. All that work today and almost all the money would go into repairing the damage to the Hammerhead. He should have known that chasing down a bounty head famous for being a pilot wasn't going to be worth it.

Suddenly a dark-haired man is standing by the table. Maybe here's someone to be angry at. But there's something about the way he holds himself, his balance, that makes Jet think this is someone who can fight.

"You stole my damn bounty head," the man says. "I came all the way to Io to get him and then you brought him in."

Another bounty hunter. He should have known. Jet grinds out the cigarette on the floor. "I didn't see your name tattooed on him anywhere."

"You owe me something. Dinner, at least. That would have been my food money."

"It would have been mine too, if I hadn't wrecked my ship chasing him."

The other man shrugs. "It was some good flying, anyway."

Jet laughs. "You saw it?"

"I couldn't help it; I was chasing him too."

"I don't remember seeing you," Jet says.

"I'm good at staying hidden."

Jet sighs, calls out an order for two of the special without asking what it is.

"You're actually going to pay for dinner?"

"You look hungry," Jet replies. And he does. He also looks intense, like someone who is keeping a secret they aren't going to give away.

"I'm Spike Spiegel," the man says, reaching across the table to shake Jet's hand.

While Jet shakes with his good hand the man eyes his other arm. "What happened to that one?"

"None of your damn business," says Jet, and receives a grin in return.

Jet is starting to feel something for this Spike Spiegel. Maybe it's just compassion, maybe it's something a little edgier that Jet's not going to admit to. Either way, as badass as this guy seems to want to be he might need someplace to go.

"You know, there are a few other bounty heads loose here on Io. If you want we could try chasing the next one together, split the bounty," Jet says.

"How do I know I can trust you?" asks Spike.

"You can't. I'm a bounty hunter."

Spike laughs. "All right. I'm in."

Jet smiles for the first time that day. Life will probably keep being tough on them, that's usually a given, but at least now there's someone new to hear his stories.


	2. Fugitive Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope

Alfred Klein was a scientist guilty of embezzlement and corporate espionage, and the bounty on him had been pretty damn large.

On his own, Jet might not have pulled this one off. They had to go all the way to Venus, where the bounty head had supposedly run, and then Jet did hours of legwork trying to find out where a rich criminal scientist would be likely to go.

That was where they got lucky. A man they met on the street, a nurse who worked in a semi-legal hospital, recognized his picture and was willing to talk in exchange for a few thousand woolongs. Alfred Klein had gone in for an appearance change but had developed Venus-sickness first.

The hard part was getting him out, and that was where Spike shone. He walked in wearing a white coat and a stethescope, nodding imperially at nurses. Then he snuck out a back door with Alfred Klein in handcuffs, quietly knocking out a couple of security guards.

After they had turned Klein over to the authorities, they had money for once. Jet repaired the Bebop and the Hammerhead, and bought food.

As he cooked dinner that night, it occurred to him that for once he had hope. He had a little cash and the promise of more to come if Spike could pull tricks like that. For dinner he had real meat on his table. And he had a partner, something he thought he'd never say again.

"So, what did you do with your share of the money?" he asked Spike as he put the dish of beef and vegetables in front of him.

"Don't ask me questions like that," Spike replied.

Jet backed off, holding his hands up. "OK, OK, I didn't ask."

"Just... don't get too attached to me, Jet."

"Who the hell said I was getting attached to you?"

Spike put a hand on his shoulder and Jet shrugged in feigned indifference to his touch.

"Just don't," he said.

Jet nodded and went into the kitchen. Like all other things, hope didn't last long on the Bebop.


	3. Looking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise

Jet Black isn't known to say, "There's no harm in looking."

Looking leads to wanting; wanting leads to touching. So when Spike strips to his undershirt and flops down onto the couch to smoke, Jet doesn't look, doesn't picture what Spike's skin would feel like under his touch. When Spike brushes past him in their close quarters, moving as smoothly as always, Jet tries not to think about it, tries not to wonder what that body would be like pressed against his.

Finally one night they are at the dinner table, and Jet looks across at Spike, focusing on a shoulder rather than his face.

"You haven't looked me in the eye for days, Jet," Spike says.

"It's your imagination," Jet says gruffly.

"I know what's going on," Spike continues.

Jet really doubts that. "There's nothing going on."

Then suddenly Spike walks around the table and bends to kiss him on the mouth. This makes no sense, and is too surprising to analyze. Spike tastes of cigarettes and mystery. Jet can't stop thinking, but he buries his good hand in Spike's hair, kisses him fiercely, and pretends that only having now will be enough.


	4. Pretending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Envy

Sometimes Spike just isn't there.

He'll be sitting on the couch or walking down the street or even grabbing Jet for a kiss and then suddenly his eyes look different. Jet knows he is somewhere else, though it only lasts a few seconds.

Since Jet knows nothing of Spike's past, he isn't sure where Spike's mind goes at these times. But the easiest explanation is a woman, so Jet gets to be pretty sure that's it. He still doesn't know if Spike ran away from this hypothetical woman or she ran away from him, but he's certain that Spike is still with her when he gets that look.

He tells himself he isn't jealous, because he's never had ambitions of having Spike all to himself. But he is, just a little, because whoever she is she has such a strong hold on Spike that nothing else seems to matter. And it may be that this woman doesn't even know that she still has Spike's heart.

Jet's never had a woman who was the only thing that mattered, not even Alisa. So he wonders what happened, what goes on in Spike's mind.

Sometimes the words are on the tip of his tongue. "Who is she?"

But he can't ask, because then he would have to stop pretending not to care.


	5. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regret

_When a life ends, the star falls, and disappears._

Jet stares at Laughing Bull as if he could somehow make the words mean something different, as if the stars could say that Spike will live and that would make it true.

Pointlessly he argues, not even mentioning any of Spike's names, because that could also make his death real. Thinking that he can somehow magically tether Spike to this planet, to the Bebop itself, and then he would never leave.

_Death is always at your side._

Who knows that better than Jet? How many people has he seen die by now? But he had told himself that Spike could settle for a future instead of living out his past, and it was never true.

Now he stands in front of Laughing Bull, wanting to change the script for the last act, but the life he finally wanted to save is already gone.


End file.
